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Verizon Is Now Selling Unlimited Data In 30-Minute Increments (theverge.com)
Verizon has unveiled a new pay-as-you-go unlimited mobile data offering yesterday called PopData that has some significant strings attached. The option charges you $2 for 30 minutes or $3 for 60 minutes of unlimited internet data. The Verge reports: Think of it like a microtransaction or in-app purchase in a mobile game, where you can't enjoy the full benefits of a product you ostensibly already own or pay for without ponying up a few extra bucks. There does appear to be some legitimate reasons to want unfettered data access for a short amount of time. For instance, perhaps you know you'll be downloading large files to your phone like numerous Spotify playlists, or maybe you want to enjoy an uninterrupted stream of a sports game or Netflix movie without having to worry about your data cap. But there's no telling really whether this is a good or bad deal, as it complicates how we think of the value of data by blending a monthly bucket metaphor with that of a time-based subscription system. This wouldn't be such a big deal if customers could simply pay for unlimited data every month. Yet Verizon -- unlike ATT, T-Mobile, and Sprint -- does not offer customers a standard unlimited plan, and the company has made an effort to kick users off their grandfathered plans in the past.
I love Corporations. They are the greatest evar. No conscience. No feelings. Just pure greed.
DO YOU SPEAK IT?
3 for 1 hr....
24 hrs TIMES 3 = 72
72 times 30 =2160 a month for unlimited
NOW of coarse you dont need all that much nor are you to pay it but for a true unlimited 24/7 month this is what they are chargng and yea
BLEED the junkies.....
Unlimited (TM) bandwidth for a limited amount of time! The demographics say the majority of you have poor enough vocabulary skills you'll actually fall for this! Hilarious, seriously. I'd be laughing about it if I wasn't crying about it. What do the FTC and FCC even do these days?
You keep using that word. I don't think that it means what you think it means.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Where do I sign up?
This feels a lot less like an information-age report and much more aged.. and more like an introduction to IT-based meter-maids. Park your car for a shopping excursion... drop in some coins and hope you get back to it before they notice you haven't left in the pre-assigned period. BAM.. your car is towed. You parked your car, put in what you thought were enough coins to cover your time.. but the doctor's visit ran a bit long. BAM.. your car is towed. This is just a fairly creative way that the data/data-path owners have devised as a new way to surcharge you for not being OCD enough to comply with their strict standards and thus they get to surcharge you for not complying with a clock-based boundary.
Peace out.
... I think this is a pretty good idea. The use cases are exactly that -- you know you're about to do something bandwidth heavy for a (relatively) short period of time, and you want to signal to your upstream provider this fact so that you can negotiate an effective resource allocation.
This really isn't any different from going to a metered to a port-based uplink for a certain length of time. Obviously, it's not truly "unlimited" (hint: nothing is), but if it's not being held against you and the speed is sufficient for your purpose (eg, streaming videos, downloading a ton of apps, tethering to your computer as you're about to do an OS upgrade, etc.), this is a great option for a savvy user.
There are probably a fair number of users whose data usage is somewhat spiky -- low usage most of the time and then a day or two when they use 4GB livestreaming something. This'll be good for them.
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
to bad that data does not show in real time to the meter. When will the clock stop and start and will they look at time that the data was used or the time it hit's the billing system?
Have gnu, will travel.
Yeah, it may be unlimited on your end but it'll be throttled to ISDN speeds.
but they don't need to test the timer to see if it is working right and they can bill for overhead and rounding.
i can't wait for comcast to hear about this scam.
Their business model has been predicated on the idea that some people will put up with anything, as long as Verizon gives them at least marginally better coverage than the competition. And lots of people have been paying them for the privilege of bending over in new ways for a couple decades now - so I'm not sure why anybody pretends to be surprised or outraged anymore.
We left Verizon back when they, unlike any other carrier, were refusing to enable Bluetooth on their phones. This was early last decade I believe. They've been operating on the "how can we be dicks today?" principle for a long, long time.
#DeleteChrome
to bad that data does not show in real time to the meter. When will the clock stop and start and will they look at time that the data was used or the time it hit's the billing system?
This whole thing is hilarious. What it is - is "if you pay us this much, we won't run your data usage against your cap for X amount of time."
Calling it unlimited is just bullshit, and as you note, what happens if you aren't quite finished with a big cownload or upload. Oopsies! You get a tex telling you you blew your data cap.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Think of it like a microtransaction or in-app purchase in a mobile game, where you can't enjoy the full benefits of a product you ostensibly already own or pay for without ponying up a few extra bucks
I'm a bit confused. If you don't have an unlimited data plan with Verizon, then how is it possible to think of this as a situation where you own something but can't use it without paying extra?
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
Yet Verizon does not offer customers a standard unlimited plan,
The option charges you $2 for 30 minutes or $3 for 60 minutes of unlimited internet data.
So it's a truly unlimited plan, but they refund you for the time you're not using it. Only $2160 per month.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
It's very rare that I need data on my phone and I'm not in reach of some wifi. Typical use cases are when I'm lost and ... not much else. Lots of people are probably like me and have a data plan just in case. But if this option is always available and costs you nothing when you don't use it, that's pretty darn attractive.
The problem is that Verizon doesn't have a real prepaid minutes plan anymore, which would pair very nicely with this. My Verizon iphone had to get migrated over to Page Plus, which sells you 2000 minutes for $80. It gets used so little that those minutes last a year.
Eat shit
So back in the bad old days of pay by the hour dialup, everybody actualy had "unlimited" data? Of course, you can download as much data as your 2400 baud modem could pipe through in that $5 hour, so I guess thast was unlimited, right?
the internet was made for porn. i could take requests from people for ebooks...no, but por: yes. i can download all that porn people ask for, remaster it to a 50-cent dvd, ask each person 2-dollars per dvd, minimum order could apply. my time would be woth 10$ per hour.but then again, some floating fat man in the Netherlands might whisp my idea down the drain at the pull of a plug.
Still on my old "unlimited" plan. They can take it when I'm dead.
"Actually sir, the timer began with the start of the login process, not the completion of the session login that took ten minutes due to "unforseen mysterious delays", so you quite clearly began to eat into a third payment increment with your downloads alone"
"Oh yes, absolutely sir, we confirm you most definitely activated an unlimited data session tuesday night at 0331"
"But my phone was dead at that time. I couldn't even find my charger and the battery ran out before midnight"
"You are liable for butt-dialling as well as any usage performed if you lent your phone to someone else, sir."
"No, my phone was DEAD"
"I understand your frustration sir but you are responsible for having given out your wifi password"
"Now you're not even reading the right spiel!"
blending a monthly bucket metaphor with that of a time-based subscription system
So is a month no longer considered a unit of time? Is it now a unit of distance?
But seriously, I was on one of the grandfathered in unlimited plans. Last time I went to the AT&T store with my wife, we were looking to cut the cost of our monthly bill. The rep looked at how much actual data I used every month over the past year and offered to cut the bill dramatically by putting me in a capped plan with a cap twice as high as my highest monthly usage.
So I took it. Money's money.
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
"20GB of unlimited data". What does that mean? Is it 20GB or is it unlimited?
I think they have Trump writing their ad copy...
Then it's not truly unlimited. Just a marketing gimmick to suck more money.
All you can eat Filet Mignon, for 7 minutes, only $14.95 .... but it takes 6 minutes to cook it.
I still don't understand the Verizon hype I have cricket's unlimited is $65 after auto pay and that includes taxes. Yes it's limited to 8megabits down but it uses AT&Ts network and is stable never had any issues and gotten coverage everywhere I go.
It in your ass plans.
From my quick skimming, this is an add-on available to all, yes? This is an offer of a burst of true unlimited data volume for a (limited) time period. Is the grief about it not being utterly unlimited, because there's a time limit? Or is it about the price?
It's a new offer, people can either try it if they have a need to download a ton of data occasionally, or not. If people don't take it, they may remove it, or lower the price to attract more takeup.
I can understand (being from the UK, where the mobile market seems more competitive, and it seems that we can get better deals) hate on Verizon pricing in general, but hating on this optional add-on seems strange. Is it just that you feel it's massively over-priced, or that unlimited data should be an affordable option all the time, or something else?
Genuinue question, I'd appreciate answers. It may be that I've missed something obvious about this announcement.
Market pressure is impacting them, they are moving there slowly. Sooner or later they will offer it I think. They could, just to avoid a few folks wrecking their network, say everyone can use up to some amount for free then after that you get 3g or pay per gig.
Where do you want to be, What are you doing to get there.
Is this the same unlimited term that ISPs use in general now? So what is the cap?
I want this at my office too. Sometimes we need to upload a 15GB file to the cloud for a client and we only have 20mbps up. If we could spend $2 to uncap to the full 100/100 symmetrical for $2 we would definitely do that. Even if we did it once a day for 30 minutes that would be $60/mo instead if the $200 extra a month symmetrical 100 up would cost.